Kingdom Come - Review Roundup

February 14th, 2018, 20:51

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I think what the game reviewer meant by "empty" is that the game world felt empty to him, in that there weren't enough people around, and also, specifically, that there wasn't enough flora and fauna around in the game world as he was exploring it. He actually mentioned that in the video. Like - birds, farm animals, deer, other wild animals in the wilderness that were missing - that kind of thing.

More of this would be fish swimming in the rivers/lakes that the player can see (maybe they have this already in the game) and bees buzzing around, along with the odd annoying fly every now and then…the wind blowing hard on occasion (infrequently), causing the trees and bushes and such to noticeably sway in the wind…all these small environmental type details, like as mentioned above, the Witcher 3 did so very well, are extremely important to the ambiance and atmosphere of the world. To make it "feel alive".

I don't think he meant that there are no places to discover or explore. More of a "the world feels too empty" type feeling.

This could be fixed by a future patch or mod, obviously. As could many of the bugs.

There is flora and I think about the same level as Witcher 3, but yes no fauna.

I read that poaching is a viable way of making money past the prologue which would require wild animals to poach and I haven't seen anyone complaining about lacking animals (I've seen people saying that hare run away super fast when they hear something though).

Also, there is plenty of flies buzzing around the appropriate places (aka near garbage and shit) and going by how beekeeping has a codex entry, there is probably some bees around too.

From reading the pc gamer write up im pretty enthusiastic about this. Sounds like theres some decent reactivity and multiple ways to solve quests. Hopefully its something that keeps up through the entire game. The bugs are discouraging but I’ll wait a bit for patches.

As for an empty world, if skyrim is any indication of what a modding community can do then that will be taken care of. I’d also like to see either official or modded 3rd person view as I’m not a big fan of first person.

Originally Posted by azarhal
I read that poaching is a viable way of making money past the prologue which would require wild animals to poach and I haven't seen anyone complaining about lacking animals (I've seen people saying that hare run away super fast when they hear something though).

Also, there is plenty of flies buzzing around the appropriate places (aka near garbage and shit) and going by how beekeeping has a codex entry, there is probably some bees around too.

Originally Posted by sakichop
As for an empty world, if skyrim is any indication of what a modding community can do then that will be taken care of.

I suspect that will just denature the game. It is trying to do a realistic portrayal of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Bohemians Wars in the early 1400s. Which means a forest is just a forest, not a place for you to grind so you can level up.

You can finish the game without killing anyone by the way, which just shows how different this game is from other open world RPGs.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I’d also like to see either official or modded 3rd person view as I’m not a big fan of first person.

I suspect the combat would be unmanageable in 3rd person.

Speaking of the combat, I though I was going to hate it and find it clunky or twitchy after watching videos, but I don't. I don't love it yet, but it's much smoother than I expected.

I'm vaguely interested in this, but I prefer fantasy elements so I'm not going to rush out and buy it. Especially since it's quite expensive, for a game produced by a studio that I'd never heard of before (and which apparently had a lot of non-KS funding) . I was expecting a $40-45 price point or thereabouts, but KC seems to have a $60 RRP, unless you were part of the KS or scored some discount deal somewhere. Once the price drops I'll look again. My next big release will be PoE2 - even there I came in at the lowest KS tier ($24 with my backer discount) I think *that* is good value for money.

Originally Posted by booboo
I'm vaguely interested in this, but I prefer fantasy elements so I'm not going to rush out and buy it. Especially since it's quite expensive, for a game produced by a studio that I'd never heard of before (and which apparently had a lot of non-KS funding) . I was expecting a $40-45 price point or thereabouts, but KC seems to have a $60 RRP, unless you were part of the KS or scored some discount deal somewhere. Once the price drops I'll look again. My next big release will be PoE2 - even there I came in at the lowest KS tier ($24 with my backer discount) I think *that* is good value for money.

You can get it for close to $45 now from cdkeys.com. Had you preordered you could have gotten it for less than $40 from there.

Originally Posted by azarhal
I suspect that will just denature the game. It is trying to do a realistic portrayal of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Bohemians Wars in the early 1400s. Which means a forest is just a forest, not a place for you to grind so you can level up.

You can finish the game without killing anyone by the way, which just shows how different this game is from other open world RPGs.

Maybe you can….. but I have to kill someone.

Unlike skyrim id play this one vanilla the first time but then it would be open season to mod the crap out of it.

Originally Posted by azarhal
I suspect the combat would be unmanageable in 3rd person.

Speaking of the combat, I though I was going to hate it and find it clunky or twitchy after watching videos, but I don't. I don't love it yet, but it's much smoother than I expected.

Hmm, didnt think about that. No biggie, its not a deal breaker, just not my preference.

I'm totally cool with never killing anything. I've played several hundred hours of Skyrim without killing much at all. I've had several alchemist runs and a couple miner runs without ever touching any of the quests. However, I am a sucker for magic, so I'm waiting on this for a while. I'll let @joxer get deep into it and then decide. Even better if @JDR13 plays too.

Again, this game is not Oblivion and has absolutely nothing from Oblivion which includes radiant grinding/roguelike trash.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I'm totally cool with never killing anything.

I'm not sure if that's even possible. If it was planned then I stumbled on a bug again.
In one main quest the game refused to progress till I killed two hostiles that I put unconscious (stealth).

I've had several alchemist runs

Alchemy in KCD exists but I don't know what it actually does - seen some pots in stores that buff skills and attributes. And so far I didn't find a NPC with some quest that'd offer to teach me at least basics. Sure, there are trainers. Expensive trainers!
You know me, I'm taking my time. For example I was lollygagging a bit just to find a person who'll teach me to read. I mean, let's face it, if I'm to become an alchemist, I should learn to read first, right?

Originally Posted by joxer
I'm not sure if that's even possible. If it was planned then I stumbled on a bug again. In one main quest the game refused to progress till I killed two hostiles that I put unconscious (stealth).

It should be possible, like I said, there is an achievement for it.

The quest log doesn't tell you all your options and even a "not optional" step can be optional. For example, the first quest you are given you need to get 3 things:
- get coal from coal-burner
- get ale from tavern
- get crossguard from castle

For the coal, you are told to go see a guy that owes your dad money, but in truth all you need to complete the quest is the 3 items. You don't need that dude's money to get the coal, you can get money in another ways and I suspect you can steal the coal as well (didn't try though). You don't even have to buy the coal from the coal-burner, one of the trader also sell some. You can probably steal the ale from the tavern too.

Aren't sites like these frowned upon by developers i.e. they sell for less than the recommended price, "take money from our babies' mouths" etc etc? I looked at the Steam price (local) and that was pretty much $60 (when converted to my currency - doesn't show me dollars) I also looked *cough* at G2A, and it was $60 there. I'll wait for the price to drop before I check back - that also has the benefit of giving time for bug fixing and for poor (imho) design decisions (like schnapps saving…) to be patched out.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I thought blacksmiths were typically literate even before 1400. Perhaps not Bohemian blackmiths, but if not who wrote the Bohemian Rhapsody?

You thought wrong.

Originally Posted by azarhal
It should be possible, like I said, there is an achievement for it.

I didn't look at achievements in detail so I don't get spoiled much in my first run. On replay, and there will be one for sure, I'll check what I didn't unlock automatically.
However note that I KOed hostiles in a quest via stealth. Upon winning a duel you also KO them - it's highly possible that the game due to a bug doesn't count stealth based choke as success in this particular instance.
Not sure at what point you currenly are, but for sure you've noticed some quest bugs. Here's another example. I've also mentioned hare hunting "contest", if you played through it some hare meat is marked as stolen, some isn't. Not only it is inconsistent, it's impossible to know which is correct. Hunting is illegal so it should all be marked as stolen. However, you got blessing from a noble to do it, so in this case perhaps it shouldn't be illegal. Luckily, when it comes to counting meat you gathered, the game doesn't care if it's stolen or not.

Originally Posted by azarhal
The quest log doesn't tell you all your options and even a "not optional" step can be optional. For example, the first quest you are given you need to get 3 things:
- get coal from coal-burner
- get ale from tavern
- get crossguard from castle

For the coal, you are told to go see a guy that owes your dad money, but in truth all you need to complete the quest is the 3 items. You don't need that dude's money to get the coal, you can get money in another ways and I suspect you can steal the coal as well (didn't try though). You don't even have to buy the coal from the coal-burner, one of the trader also sell some. You can probably steal the ale from the tavern too.

1. You can't pickpocket in that chapter
2. For all I remember there is no lockpick in that chapter, but if there is, perhaps it's possible to get coal from a locked container somewhere
3. I've already mentioned elsewhere that I earned shitton of $ by selling flowers and herbs which also upped some skills of mine and it is actually logical - Henry is a peasant
4. You also don't need to train swords as later another guy will train you the very same sequences
5. You can't steal ale, it's a scripted sequence necessary to progress the quest, but you can "steal" mead from tavern cellar if you're after alcohol
6. You don't need dude's $, sure, but you have to confront him. You don't have to fight him nor win it (I still did). You'll meet him later in the game and… Spoilers!

Man, perhaps I should restart the game. Now another idea occured to me I didn't try in that chapter. Shall I go crpgnut restarting from scratch or not? Choices choices…

Originally Posted by booboo
Aren't sites like these frowned upon by developers i.e.

Dunno about that site, but I've seen moderator locking threads where some shady site instant gaming was mentioned. People were asking if anyone received key from that site, mod replied something like it's not a legit seller and locked it.

EDIT:
Instead of bumping this one up… Shallwe make tips/tricks/hints thread?

Originally Posted by booboo
Aren't sites like these frowned upon by developers i.e. they sell for less than the recommended price, "take money from our babies' mouths" etc etc? I looked at the Steam price (local) and that was pretty much $60 (when converted to my currency - doesn't show me dollars) I also looked *cough* at G2A, and it was $60 there. I'll wait for the price to drop before I check back - that also has the benefit of giving time for bug fixing and for poor (imho) design decisions (like schnapps saving…) to be patched out.

That is not what those sites do, those sites offer versions of the game from different countries. Different countries have different prices and taxes for games. These sites just offer the cheapest price from the cheapest country.

That said devs/publishers dont like it depending on how low the prices are. I bought Witcher 3 for $20 from IIRC the Russian versions of GoG I think, they didnt like it so they refunded me the payment and let me play the game for free. But now that I deleted the game from GoG I no longer have it.